Permission to Dream

- Blurb -

In the spirit of The Last Lecture, The Secret, and The Alchemist, this small book presents BIG ideas for turning your "one day" into today, including the generational transfer of a dream and a powerful blueprint for a masterpiece life-from the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir and major motion picture The Pursuit of Happyness. On a winter' s day, Chris Gardner set off with his nine-year-old granddaughter Brooke to find the harmonica of her dreams. The search sends them North "beyond the wall" into a foreboding Chicago neighborhood and, soon, on a harrowing adventure that will change both of their lives-and ours. Chris is still mourning the loss of his girlfriend to brain cancer. Her question haunts him: "Now that we know how short life can be, what will you do with the time you have left" After five years, he feels an urgency-what he calls, "Atomic Time" in which every second counts-to find an answer, but is stuck. Even while giving Brooke permission to aspire to one day become President of the United States, he knows it' s time to reclaim his own permission to dream. Lost, Chris and his granddaughter board a bus, reminding him of earlier rides through dark times when dreams of a better life kept him alive. As the two wind through a changing cityscape, Chris reflects on past lessons that offer powerful guidance for dreaming your way to monumental success. At its heart, this book lays out a blueprint for building a dream-come-true life-even during uncertainty. Gardner delivers the secrets to achieving a prosperous career-from a method for identifying your ultimate dream to a playbook for becoming world class at it. His tools include the "new 3 R' s"-or the Rep, the Rap and the Rolodex-which reveal how to earn a stellar reputation, develop a rap for marketing yourself, and amass a Rolodex of rewarding relationships. No matter how much wealth you achieve, Chris notes, true success comes from enriching the lives of others-so all can still have access to the American Dream. Toward the end, Brooke observes that in Atomic Time it' s never too late for anyone to reinvent themselves and change their fortune. Chris, hearing her, realizes what his next pursuit will be-to go back to high school and give permission to dream to the next generation of problem solvers and change makers. A true fable, Permission to Dream is a timeless and timely manifesto for turning dreams into action-beginning right now.